STATE GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL 



HISTORY SURVEY 



FOURTH BIENNIAL REPORT 



SCOPE AND PLAN OF THE SURVEY 

 There has been no change in the general scope and plan of 

 the Survey since its first organization. It may, however, be con- 

 venient briefly to recapitulate what has been said thereon in 

 former reports. The Survey was established by an act approved 

 June 3, 1903. That act proposed for the Survey two subjects for 

 investigation ; viz., the geology of the state, and the natural 

 history, or botany and zoology, of the state. It has been pre- 

 sumed to be the intent of the law that the appropriation should 

 be divided with some approach to equality between geology and 

 biology*. The law establishing the Survey proposes definitely 

 three aims with reference to which the work should be prose- 

 cuted : — first, the purely scientific aim of advancing our knowl- 

 edge of the geology and natural history of the state; second, 

 the economic aim of leading to the most effective conservation 

 and utilization of the resources of the state ; third, the educa- 

 tional aim of promoting the work of the schools of the state by 

 the publication of the results of investigation in a form adapted 

 for the use of teachers. 



The plan of organization which was outlined in the first re- 

 port has been retained. Only one salaried officer has been ap- 

 pointed by the Commissioners; viz., the Superintendent. Other 

 scientific men have been engaged to investigate particular sub- 

 jects and prepare reports or bulletins thereon. In the great 

 majority of cases, the terms of contract with these scientific men 

 have been that the investigator should receive a certain sum as 

 compensation when the bulletin presented was accepted by the 

 Superintendent, and that a certain allowance should also be made 

 for the expenses of the work, the allotment for expenses to be 

 drawn upon from time to time as the expenses were actually 



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